Touched
by MakoRain
Summary: Cloud is simply an angel who has lost his way...or has he? Tifa is simply a modern royal trapped in a world she knows nothing about...or is she? Zack is a vampire completely out of the loop...or is he? Aerith's spirit haunts the fallen angel..or does she?
1. Prologue

A/N: Happy Halloween to one and all! I've never been too good with deadlines so I was a little under pressure to reach this self set one but I did it and I hope you like how it's turned out. No worries, there's plenty more to come so please please please tell me what you think thus far and I'll see when I can get to posting the next chapter-R&R!

Standard disclaimers (FFVII) apply. Background music-I have a whole track listing but for this part I listened to a lot of old school Linkin Park lol.

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**Touched**

by MakoRain

**Prologue**

This wasn't supposed to be happening. Chaos in such a serene place wasn't possible, was it? Cloud had his doubts brought to life as he finally made his way through the surrounding disarray only to reach the center of the storm where all was eerily calm and at a stand still.

"Angeal!"

His mentor and Keeper of the Oracle stood before someone they had trusted so easily. He was one of them, so why would he do this? The reason didn't matter as Cloud finally reached the eye of the tornado, the whole unfathomable reason Heaven was on such high alert: Sephiroth was trying to take the Oracle.

"Why my son? Why would you do such a blasphemous thing?" Angeal asked, as if trying to reason with the rogue angel or voicing aloud his own thoughts.

Cloud felt his hands ball into fists at his sides with Sephiroth's cruel laughing in response but was held back by a calming hand on his shoulder. Angeal held a look of calm and understanding, the same look he always had which struck the younger angel dumbfounded. How could his master be so collected when literally the future was at stake? Even if he didn't understand it, he trusted Angeal and so relaxed his hands once again at his sides.

Sephiroth watched the exchange in silent contemplation, an eyebrow slowly arched as he took it all in.

"I can see how I was lead to believe these ways for so long. You are very persuasive, Angeal." Sephiroth noted, holding the Oracle closed securely to his chest as if it were his most prized possession. In fact it was, but it didn't belong to him, it belonged in Angeal's care.

"You know the rules, Sephiroth. To even hold the Oracle is enough to have you stripped of your wings."

Sephiroth glanced at his mentor as if contemplating this offer with a wavering gleam in his eye.

Angeal took a deep breath to retain his calm. "Now that is something I would regret having to do. If you will hand over the Oracle without anymore of this nonsense, all will be forgiven."

That gleam turned hard as a shard of glass as Sephiroth scoffed at the offer. "I cannot go back to being blind and obedient, _Master_." He said the title with a sneer as if it left a bad taste in his mouth. Then turning to Cloud, he said with a hint of pity mixed with a lot of disdain, "You have no idea, do you little angel?"

Angeal put a hand in front of Cloud before he could take a step towards their aggressor.

"Do not disrupt this young man's teachings with taunts of knowledge far beyond our comprehension. How dare you read the unseen pages of the Oracle! They are meant for those angels who have had the complete proper training." Angeal's voice rang with a cold conviction but never broke the level concentration he held to keep it that way.

"So that would be only you? Why is it that the fate of us all is left in your clearly incapable hands, Angeal? I've seen the light and nothing you say can make me stray from the true path away from you and your lies."

Cloud took a step forward, unable to stand idly by any longer.

"It's the only way! We guard the Oracle, and he is the Keeper. There is no other way!" The blond angel pointed to himself, Sephiroth, and Angeal as if to get his point across. It only served to upset their silver-haired cohort.

"That's where you're wrong, Cloud Strife."

Before the young man could further object, Angeal did so for him.

"You know the rules, Sephiroth!" Angeal yelled and it was the first time Cloud had ever heard him raise his voice. It was startling and had him stone still but their lighter-haired ex- companion.

"Rules are made to be broken, Angeal Hewley."

Angeal paled and Cloud shuddered, knowing the power the name held and Sephiroth took the opportunity to take a drastic topic change.

"You don't even know who you are, do you? No memory of why or how you got here, just floated up mysteriously. Don't you want to know what those dreams you keep tossing and turning to mean, Strife?"

_Dreams? How did he know?_

"Angels can't dream. There is no subconscious state possible to achieve in Heaven. This is the ultimate state." Cloud recited with the conviction he felt in knowing this was the one and only truth...wasn't it?

"Keep telling yourself that, you naive fool. I know better. This is the only way."

Cloud didn't know if it was pity or condescending smugness that filled Sephiroth's eyes. All he knew is that he'd never been more angry before in his life and he was ready to talk it out on the self-righteous bastard. Just as he took another threatening step towards the lunatic with the Oracle, said lunatic pulled something out of the scabbard on his back. The metal shone with an unnatural glow, the hue as red as blood.

_Demon's blood._

It all happened so fast and yet slow enough for Cloud to recall the moment for lifetimes to come. Sephiroth struck with a quick ruthlessness, cutting through to the hilt in one simple motion and pulling out just as easily. Before he knew it, Angeal was laying in a crumpled heap on the floor and Sephiroth was standing there, an instant of sorrow in his mad eyes.

"He was always in my way," the young man whispered, looking down at his slain mentor and the compassion was gone, replaced with resolve to claim what was rightfully his.

As he turned to flee, Cloud fell to Angeal's side, reaching the man's side moments too late. Failing at words, he simply slid the dying Keeper's head into his lap and waited for the inevitable with tears of rage and sadness silently streaming down his face. To his relief, Angeal had some remaining breath left to speak his last wishes.

"Cl-cloud, g-go."

Cloud clutched the dying angel's hand tighter, unsure of what he meant. Go? Go where? It was then that he turned to look and realized Sephiroth had not yet escaped from the heavenly plain. He'd have a chance to catch him if he-

"But what about you?"

"Go! You're the only one who can stop him!" Angeal urged until his words were cut off by his violent coughing.

Before Cloud could protest any further, another arch angel of the high council appeared in a flurry of wings at Angeal's side.. "You're the next Oracle in line, Cloud. Retrieve was is almost lost. You're our last hope, don't fail us!" Rufus urged. Cloud allowed one last look at his dying mentor before diving after the man who held everyone's future jeopardized in the balance...

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Please tell me tell me tell me what you think of this revamped version :D


	2. Chapter 1

A/N: After reading my reviews I realized that yes, due to giving myself a deadline I ended up falling short of my own expectations as well as summarizing in the prologue. I absolutely hate hate hate doing that kind of thing because I want to keep things a surprise and so I have edited the prologue to keep some mystery. Please give it a glance before reading what lies below which is the official chapter 1. Please R&R!

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**Chapter 1**

Even in the darkest of nights, her eyes could pierce through the valley below. Although the full moon didn't hurt either as she gazed at the far off view from her balcony many stories up, high enough to see the ocean and where her kingdom would be past that.

Her home that she had been deprived of ever since she was 16 when that God awful sorcerer staked his claim on her. Literally claimed her, as one would any old piece of property or goat for sale! Tifa felt the urge to get up and thrash about the room in a temper tantrum as she had done when first brought to this lonely old castle like the child she had been but now at her older and what she'd like to think as somewhat wiser age, she just settled for stomping her foot with indignation. The thought of a goat once again came to her mind and so she stopped herself from doing it a second time, a touch unhappy at how close the comparison resembled her current state.

With an indignant huff, Tifa finally settled into her chair at her vanity, running her thick and lustrously long dark locks through her fingers before lifting a brush to tame the mane. Oh, sure, it would be easier to simply call to one of her hand maidens to help her but as she grew older, the princess had learned to take care of the daily necessities such as grooming and clothing.

Part of this was because of the tendency of the castle's staff to thin out before realizing that looking at her, talking to her, accidentally touching her- was the cause. After a time she figured out that this was her curse and so warned others to either be clothed completely from head to toe and cover their eyes or allow her to do so before seeing anyone.

Tifa knew her parents needed their servants and guards more than she ever would. But a bigger part she admitted to herself was that she simply liked being alone, preferred it even. Alright, maybe not preferred it exactly but she was used to it, having no brothers nor sisters of her own, she was the only one.

Don't get her wrong, Tifa loved her parents dearly. It's just that at times they were so smothering and paranoid and remarkably daft with overdoing every simple thing. Take the fact that she was locked in a tower, for instance. Okay, now that wasn't fair; Tifa chose the tower room but still! And alright she wasn't literally "locked in" but it wasn't like she could just stroll into town anytime she wanted; she had to have a guard to just go walking the castle ground so forget about past the gates. All in all, the point was made loud and clear.

As these thoughts came to mind and Tifa tried her best to let them flow right on through, they stuck more stubbornly than a small knot of hair that got caught in her brush. With a sigh, her fiddling with it did more damage than help and before she had the slightest chance to call to a servant for assistance, a glimmer of white out of the corner of her eye forced her to silence. With her cat-like reflexes she quickly hopped to her feet, careful not to let the bench beneath her tip over in her sudden movements. Just then the cloud cover decided to take away the illumination of the full moon night and in the blink of an eye, whatever she thought she saw has gone.

"Damn," Tifa swore under her breath, always aware to keep as close to a lady-like calm as possible.

"Oh shit oh shit shit SHIT!"

_Good Lord, that certainly wasn't me._

And that just so happened to be when a flurry of white feathers and black clothing promptly fell from the sky onto her balcony, missing her by mere inches and mumbling profanities.

Her instinct to scream bloody murder died in her throat instantly as her somewhat motherly nature she didn't know she really had until now suddenly took over, bending over the grumbling pile to help disentangle flopping limbs, quickly losing patience with what she determined to be a boy by the lower voice grouching, "Get off, get off already I've got it."

"Pardon me but you certainly have not got it, now hold still!" She commanded with a yank on his shirt and surprisingly he stopped jerking around long enough for her to get him back into order, or as much order as possible.

When everything was finally back in place, a tall slim but muscular frame filled out his black pants and simple white shirt open at the collar enough to show an expanse of pale almost phosphorescent chest making Tifa blush, turning away from not a boy but clearly a man.

Flustered and off-balance by this revelation, she quickly dropped her hands from his clothing, taking a few steps back and only then realizing the white feather she was holding and the others almost dancing along her balcony in the soft breeze. Before she could get lost in the simple touch of the feather, she looked at the man now on her adjoining balcony and realized this was the first man she had ever had in her room before.

Her change in demeanor immediately caught her intruder's attention and the brash rude man of before transformed almost instantly, placing a comforting albeit tentative hand on her shoulder as if she were made of fragile glass. The concern in his eyes mixed with the feeling of being small and helpless in his arms was more than enough to unnerve her. The feel of his skin shocked her into the common sense to step away before someone got hurt.

"I'm sorry. I didn't startle you, did I? Because I really didn't mean to. Furthest thing from my mind, honest."

This crazily spiked blonde-haired blue eyed man literally just dropped into her life and the instant he took her hand, Tifa felt as if she'd known him her entire existence. That was nothing compared to the shock to her system she received when he bent at the waist and gently placed his lips to her hand in a formal chaste kiss.

How strange was that? Even more strange was the way he carefully removed the feather from her hold and swept it aside with the rest. Now that simply struck her as odd. Unfortunately, his touch has such an effect on her that she couldn't think straight.

"The white feathers...why are they...why?" Or talk straight enough to form a coherent sentence as she forced her mouth closed to mentally slap herself and to stop making an even bigger fool of herself in the meantime.

"Feathers? Oh those are from the pigeons on the roof." The man answered her question quicker than she was able to process, leaving her dizzy with the effort.

_Maybe this is what going into shock feels like. _

Yes! The scare from a man falling onto her balcony into her room in the middle of the night was making her go into shock! Or at least Tifa hoped so and that she wasn't getting all weak-kneed and well _girly_ for a completely handsome stranger who had been stalking around her home in the middle of the night!

There, that was something to focus on instead of this growing heat where his hand still held hers, lingering longer than necessary in an attempt to steady her but having the exact opposite effect.

"But _white_ feathers?" She finally managed to ask not as dignified as she was hoping but better than before nonetheless. At least this time she made an almost complete sentence for crying out loud.

Looking down at his fingers sparked a thought swimming around in her brain, something urgent...That's it, she needed to break this connection of tingle and heat coursing through him to her by stepping away and taking her hand back and yet...

"Right, from the doves on the roof." He replied smoothly, not missing a beat as he trailed his fingers along the back of her hand and up her arm as if pulling strings.

Strings...some kind of connection...

"Doves...but pigeons before..." Tifa's voice trailed off, her eyes closing while shaking her head of these crazy thoughts of pigeons and doves and feathers and birds. Of course birds have different feathers. She shut her eyes so tight that when she opened them again the feathers were gone without a trace...as if they weren't there before. Because maybe they weren't there before. They were on the birds on the roof where they should be...as they should be.

"Pardon me, I seem to hmmm..." She looked down at the fingers still hovering above her skin and even though she knew she should pull away, for the life of her she just couldn't.

To be touched...was nice. She forgot how much she'd missed it. After all, it's hard to miss something you barely had in the first place.

"You touched me."

A wave of dizziness made the princess sway on her feet and her blond-haired-blue-eyed stranger stayed there to save her, picking her up and cradling her in his arms with ease, as if she weighed no more than a feather. That thought made her giggle as her savior settled her into the plush bed covers, smiling slightly.

"I'm sorry, I didn't even get your name."

The man gave her startled look for an instant but in a blink it vanished, replaced with that slow lazy smile of his.

"Cloud."

Cloud? That was the last coherent thought she could manage before drifting off, catching a bit of his farewell leaving a smile on her lips in her slumber.

"Cloud of the fair feathers."

Cloud gaped at her whispered words unbeknownst to her before sleep took over, giving him a chance to recover.

"Goodnight, fair Touched Tifa."


End file.
